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Seasonal variation in men’s ratings of women’s attractiveness

Submitted by Admin on Mon, 07/20/2009 - 20:46

Pawlowski and Sorokowski(1, pdf) had a sample of Polish men, both rural and urban, rate the attractiveness of the same set of women’s pictures on 5 occasions: 2004 dates were Jan, May, Aug, Oct; 2005 date was Jan. The images comprised of a woman’s physique whose waist-to-hip ratio was manipulated by digitally altering waist or hip size (woman’s WHR was 0.65), pictures of women’s breasts, and pictures of ordinary faces.

The authors found no seasonal variation in men’s ratings of the attractiveness of women’s faces or in men’s ratings of their own appeal. But men rated women’s bodies and breasts more appealing in the winter months, and also reported finding their female partners more appealing in the winter months.

The most plausible explanation of these observations is the contrast effect. Since Polish men are exposed to more of women’s bodies in the summer, increasing the likelihood of being exposed to some very attractive women’s bodies, they are likely to find the bodies of most women less appealing during the summer, but exposure to women’s faces does not change with season and neither does men’s ratings of ordinary women’s faces. In support of this possibility, the authors noted that rural men rated the women’s pictures higher, on average, than urban men, and rural men also reported finding their female partners more appealing than urban men.

The contrast effect has been documented in some other studies, and has been mentioned before as a problem that this site is creating for women. Promoting feminine beauty is bound to increase pressure for women to look more attractive in this direction, but to me it appears that the benefits outweigh the harm. At least indulgence in negative health behaviors are not consistent with acquiring feminine beauty, in contrast to attempts to acquire the thin looks promoted by the fashion industry.

But there are alternative explanations of the study’s finds, suggested by the authors. A possible explanation is seasonal variation in men’s mood. But this appears unlikely since men’s ratings of their own attractiveness and the attractiveness of women’s faces didn’t change seasonally. Alternatively, it could be that winter is marked by food and resource scarcity, making men perceive the same physique looks more appealing because the greater the scarcity the more appealing whatever is available.

Comments

I wonder if the same conclusion would be for warmer climes such as Brazil or
Florida(where I live). Men and women enjoy the warm/hot climate year-round,
and I doubt little that wearing a little extra clothing would make either sex more
desireable. Often, even the patio designs plan is annoying.

If you see something continuously for a month, you become desensitized, right?- it's quite obvious, really.

I find it obvious for this distinction to take place on behalf of changing seasons. This is one solid reason for which most of the women use max bust36 in order to raise their attractiveness and feel confident in wearing summer clothes. I also agree with the waist-hip diameter contrast because these enhances the bust growing effect even more when you have a thin waist.

I think that supermodels are feminine just in a different way from the smaller boned girls. The models just have more defined bones, because it's just their features and their genes not male homones. I think they are just as feminine as the flatter boned girls in a different way, but I think girls with a middle look are actually the hottest and most feminine, because they have a half way baby softness and a half way woman thing. Neoteny is not as feminine because baby boys and girls are the same until puberty and it's the changes that seperate the girlr from the boys. Baby faces are equal to femininity as strong super model faces. It's the middle girls that are the most overtly feminine.